Wednesday 25 June 2014

Colour Me Butterfly - why life is not fair

Do you know that people who feel they are good-looking generally earn more than those who do not. A survey conducted by London Guildhall University of 11,000 people showed that those who subjectively describe themselves as physically attractive earn more income than others who would describe themselves as less attractive. So, let's play some blame game here. Ready? 


1. We blame them for earning more because they chose to see themselves as good-looking ?
2. We blame the employers of labour for being biased and paying them more?
3. We blame Life. Life is not fair?
But before we push this blame game too far, let's be mindful of the truth in this research.
1. These people are not particularly good-looking.
2. These people subjectively describe themselves as good-looking.
Now, let's try the blame game again.
1. Why shouldn't their counterparts see themselves as good-looking? 

[ whose fault ?]
2. Is beauty really an objective thing at all?  [ I don't think so ] 


The difference between PERSONAL BRANDING and MERELY EXISTING  is the difference between HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF  and HOW YOU WANT OTHERS TO SEE YOU.  More often than not, PERSONAL BRANDING, contrary to what you may have heard,  is about the former. HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF . HOW YOU TELL YOUR OWN STORY. HOW YOU PUSH FORWARD YOUR OWN STRENGTH defying all of your flaws. Got it?



Take a butterfly, a family of Lepidoptera. This is where a moth belongs. How come we adore a butterfly more than a moth? Science claims that the differences between these insects can be very minor. The one that clearly stands out is the power of color. Butterflies are colorful. Moths are dull.
Before we go too far with this, we need to establish that the most important thing we want you to take away from this workshop is : 


BE COLORFUL. Be alive. Live brilliant and everything around you will look brilliant. Now, that's the heart of PERSONAL BRANDING. 

Play up your strength. Stop whining about your weaknesses. Let's take a quick note from a butterfly. Meanwhile, print, color the butterfly below and send back to kennybrandmuse@gmail.com [ That's your class work. Lol ]  






LESSON 1. ATTACH AND THEN FIND A HOLE.


They spend a long time attaching themselves to Host plants at the Egg stage to simply feed. This is what we call 'waiting it out'. To be colorfully proficient in your field, you need to shut up for a while and attach yourselves to PROs. But before you end the attachment session, you need to dig a hole in that industry to find your space. Find an unmet need. Find the weakness of your mentor and capitalize on it to stretch out. Again, we say, life is not fair. The reason a lot of people are far behind in their career is that they tailgate the people ahead of them; wanting to share their space. There cannot be two Kings on a throne. You need to burrow a deep hole and reach out to a new category. Else, you remain a cocoon for life. Sounds familiar? There are so many new holes to be burrowed into Medicines. Law. Fashion. Arts. You cannot do the same things your predecessors do and expect a different result. Attach for a while, and find a hole.  In our workshops, we spend a considerable amount of time on Burrowing Strategy: How to Create a New Space for your Career or Personal Brand. Ask here: www.cluborangeng.com



LESSON 2:  [ To be continued ]

Credits: 1. Butterfly tattoo from www.cuded.com

            2. Butterfly vector from http://www.pinterest.com/aprilhartphoto/clip-art/  

            3. http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/Careers/07/08/looks/

Friday 26 April 2013

What I would have done if I needed to do a Porting Campaign



I would zag.

Yea, I’d simply look within my brand and turn the word ‘port’ on its head by creating a ‘stay’ campaign. Since porting allows subscribers to switch networks and still retain their numbers, I’d look at a strategy to retain my subscribers. I’d say we are not a number but a community of ‘something’ based on what is inherent in the brand. I'd find that something in the brand. Every brand has that something. My bull’s eye would be the restless young people who are never patient with network instabilities.

To start off my campaign, I’d create ‘friends 4 life’ parties for subscribers. These parties would be taken to grassroots and the places where my subscribers live.  I’d block off some radio segments just for our influencers subscribers to be on radio to sensitize others who are driving or who are at home about these parties.  These parties would have grand slams at various touch points. For the Youth market, the Corporate users etc.  Key brand members would feature at these parties to take feedbacks from subscribers. I would adopt Obama's 'knocking on the door' campaign for friends to recruit friends to join. 

What would ‘friends 4 life’ be offering? Massive bonus for every call. Free SMS for people within the same parties or zone. Plus more. For 90 days. Yes, you know why. 

Marketing budget would be spent to design customized Tee shirts for all the numbers in my network.  No. Tees won’t carry numbers. It would be done in a walk-in booths around your area. Go in, take a picture with our branded frame. Come out on the other side, Tee is ready with a sketch of your face and a message of your choice that ends with ‘I’m not a number on _____ network’

All these events would generate enough videos for my online engagement.  Tee pix would become my banners featuring as many consumer as we could.

ATL, I’d deploy a simple and straightforward campaign that says ‘ Don’t be treated like a phone number, stay with your own.’ This campaign  would be about people. Real people talking to real people. It would mirror real ‘staying power ‘ of friendships. And it would functionally tell you why ‘you need to stay’. I’d find a powerful story to emotionalize this campaign. But it would be about people and not numbers. It would be about the people behind the phone numbers.

That’s not all. Then I would warn that you do not copy this while I go to have a quick cup of coffee.  LMFAO

PS: The brand lesson here is that brands are about people and not the numbers. Read the book HumanKind by Leo Burnett.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

MTN vs ETISALAT : Who really Ported our Saka ?


Well, as a Professional, I wouldn’t want to respond to the Saka menace going on in town but then I keep getting emails upon emails from students, clients, fans and friends. People keep asking me several questions; why on earth did Saka port?
 
Relatedly, I went for a Strategic meeting with the Executive Board Members of a renowned bank, and the story came up again. In fact, they played the commercial and applauded the sheer brilliance of MTN. I actually heard one of the Excos saying ‘I’m going to port immediately.’  So I asked them: what worked for you in the commercial? Majority of them said ‘we just love this Saka man’
 
There’s nothing as powerful as that cultural connection and that humanness factor we display as brands. As I watch from a distance the recent Saka phenomenon  I can only bow to this timeless advertising principle. Culture eats Strategy for breakfast.  Hats off.


As the Creative Director who was privileged to have created the iconic Saka for advertising, I watch as this device takes on a life of its own and how it is gradually becoming a major case study in the history of Nigeria’s advertising.  However, before I go to major brand lessons this should teach us, I shall quickly correct some insinuations flying round in our ad circle. Ad people can be their own worst enemies. Don’t take my words for it. Go see  Mad Men. However, it’s good to have a first person point of view to this saga.

For the record.


First, Saka was not a celebrity used for etisalat. Rather, he was a character we at Centrespread designed for an ad campaign that has come to take on a life of its own. When we did create the character bible, we needed a talent that could act the role and he came in for the casting like any other person. Looking at the screen test later on, we had no doubt that Saka was the man we were looking for. You must give credits to etisalat to have approved of our direction and choice. It really was not their ‘type’ of advertising.  So, it was not a case of celebrity endorsement, it was a case of characterization. In Wendy’s ‘where is the beef’, the miniature old lady has become a phenomenon because of her characterization and Wendy wouldn’t dare joke with that.
 
Secondly, we must also quickly correct the impression that the ‘funny’ man was looking for money, hence porting to MTN.  While it is a fact that all of us on this planet would want to be better paid for our talent, I know personally, that Saka gave his very best to us on etisalat’s campaign. He was not signed on a contract. He was paid like any other 3-month model arrangement. He was not paid the proverbial gbem. For the brand then, it was more of a tactical usage. He didn’t fit their typical advertising look and feel. Remember etisalat is the hip, classy and swag brand. Like I said earlier, we must credit them to have approved of the Saka idea in the first place.  Although it was beginning to look like this was a devise that etisalat could own, going by the results it generated, Saka was treated like any other cast. I am very sure Banky W got more handsomely paid than our beloved Saka. Far far. But where is Banky W today?  He ported also. That is what you can refer to as celebrity usage. Saka was not treated as such.

Quickly onto major brand lessons.

1. Advertising people must realize that people don't really go all out to watch and listen to what we have to say. People don’t like ads. However, people love characters. Characterization is the holy grail of great storytelling. And if you are lucky to have one working for your brand, you’d better recognize and keep it like gold.  My friend Udeme. Mama na Boy.The Malboro man. The Michelin Man. The Morton Salt Girl. Some of these are animated devices, some are real cast. Whatever it is, it is the job of the brand to treat such characters as assets for brand equity.  In Africa, our type of storytelling is rarely animated. Hence, the place for human characters. I shall talk about this, another day.

2. We must come down from our high horses as advertisers and start recognizing local nuances and cultural elements in our storytelling. I don’t know where we got the theory that ‘looking good is great advertising’. Great ads may look good but that’s not their intentions. They normally have that verisimilitude to the lives of the people they serve. They are usually humanly populist, interesting and sometimes funny.  How professionally done is the Indomee song ‘mama you do good o’? It may be tough selling that to a boardroom of brand people who believe in certain types of music production and musicians. The Indomee song came to the market awash with on-air fake accents and stole the show. It mirrors what our people would do. It mirrors how our children would sing.




3. Lastly, and don’t take this personal as it’s commonplace not just to a particular brand. Ad people must begin to have a relook at how we treat our local talents and agencies. If we can go on to pay Kim Kardashian that insane amount of money as a country just to appear for a 3 minute talk, we must begin to have a relook at how we treat our local talents that deliver the numbers for us. Listen guys! Don’t like me.  Don’t even like my work but hey please, give me some credits if my work is delivering for you.  Ad people are mad people for a reason. They are awake all night thinking of ideas. They work and work to see their works deliver for their clients. It’s a two way street. The agency has the talents and the ideas, you have the budget and the brand. So, we need each other. Hence, we must respect each other. We must respect talents. When we lose, we lose together, and when we win, we win altogether.  Same goes for the agency. Do we really tell the truth to our clients? Are we honest with our proposal? I have lots of friends on the client side and I know how tough it is for them to deliver on their KPI. So, we agency people should not feel victimized. Everyone is under pressure. But we should always talk. 

When I tell you about communicating your proposition, you as a client should listen. It's what I have done for donkey years, and when you talk about your Marketing deliverable, I must listen very well. You always know better. No one is superior. In Insanely Simple, a book, Ken Segall went on to narrate how Steve Jobs cut off the unwinding long process for ad approvals. As far as Jobs was concerned, a product person did not and should not be consulted on advertising creatives. Jobs trusted Chiat to bring the magic on. No interference. This is  a must read for all clients and agencies:  Insanely Simple . How to create a brand like Apple. Sometimes, I don’t know if we tell ourselves real truths when we sit at those roundtables having coffee. AAAN and APCON, note.
 
4.  Marketing is a game of opportunities. You find a loophole in competitions and you quickly use it to your advantage. Dog eat dog. That’s the case of MTN. They did try the Saka phenomenon with Osofia and Mama Gee but they knew that if it’s not Saka, it’s not Saka. We all know this is a very strategic move for MTN for the portability season. However if I must warn that etisalat is a very spontaneous brand at times. You may expect a shocker. Guys at etisalat , it’s time to look within. There’s something inside of etisalat; locked up in there. The brand must find it. Every brand has a great story locked up within it. It’s our job to find it. It is often brutally simple that we overlook it.
 Ok, I need some Coffee please!
   



PS: note that that this writeup does not represent the view of an agency or a brand. It is entirely the opinion of the writer and hence should considered so. 

Join me on my Journeys into Great Brand Experiences as I launch my rested website soon. Watch this page or write to kennybrandmuse@gmail.com
  

Monday 31 December 2012

7 Biggest Muses of 2012




#1 STOP WAITING ON OTHERS TO APPROVE OF YOU. THEY WON'T. 

Having been exposed to lots of condemnations from the society, religious beliefs, workplace and dysfunctional family systems, lots of people don't love themselves a bit. So, they just barely live; always waiting for one more validation from others.

MUSE ON THIS: 
Don't wait for anyone to approve of you and stop comparing yourself with themselves. It's your life. Give it your very best shot by being honest with yourself. If you mess up. Too bad! No one has the right to judge you. Pick yourself up while you can and start living. Honestly, how long do you have to live to please others? it's your LIFE.


#2 LOVE IS THE TRUE RELIGION NO ONE CAN FAULT. CHASE IT

We will always disagree on the basis our beliefs, faith and opinions because, honestly, people have the right to believe what they want to believe as long as it does not infringe on the freedom of others around them.

MUSE ON THIS: But we should never disagree on loving others around us irrespective of their beliefs. Love is the only worldview that keeps us going. Love is a thoughtful act of kindness to everyone we ever come across, no matter how differently we see the world. It's a universal language of humankind we should spend our entire life to learn. It's bigger than any personal belief or opinion and it's the least thing anyone on earth can afford. Spread more love people because the world is already filled with so much hates.


#3 SHOW A LITTLE KINDNESS AND RUN AWAY. PEOPLE DON'T ALWAYS PAY BACK
It's natural to expect a favor back from someone you have just shown favor. Life, however, has shown us that's not always the case. In fact, it turns out that people we care about the most, oftentimes break our hearts. Most times, it hurts so bad we just want to shut others out. 

MUSE ON THIS: Treat others the same way you'd like to be treated even if they don't deserve it. There will always be ungrateful people in the world but that should not prevent us from showing one more little kindness unto others. There really is no reward in heaven for doing that. The reward is right here on earth. Some call it the law of Karma but I call it the Law of a better world. If you can help anyone around you, help them and expect nothing in return. Show that little kindness and run away



#4 BE CURIOUS. BE VERY CURIOUS. IT ONLY KILLS THE CAT NOT YOU.

It's human nature to quest for everything. It's also human nature to explain everything. Our brains are wired with a mythic element that seeks bigger answers for the world's many 'why, who, where, how. what, and what if '. Why do people die? Where do people go when they die? Why are some people abused as children? Why do some of us grow fat easily no matter what we do? Why? Why is the world coming to an end? Why is the world not coming to an end? Why should there be a God? Why should't a beautiful world like have no God ruling over it? Why but why?

MUSE ON THIS: There will always be as many answers as we can find but the quest will never end. What should end is our close-mindedness. We should stop putting others in our own little boxes of answers. When we close our mind, we kill the possibilities of new discoveries, new cures to diseases and new possibilities. Every technology we use today is an outcome of people ever searching for new knowledge and better world. One of the biggest highlights of 2012 is the launch of The NASA Mars rover Curiosity. When we stop being curious, we stop growing. We stop knowing. We regress backwards and we destroy others in our own ignorance. It's okay to say 'you really can't figure something out' than saying 'you do have answers to everything' . If you can't prove anything with evidences and receipts, you should take it easy on others. No one has all the answers. Enjoy being curious, people. It only kills the cat and not our minds.



#5.LEAVE YOUR WEAKNESS ALONE FOR A MOMENT AND WORK ON YOUR STRENGTH. OUR WEAKNESSES ALMOST NEVER REALLY LEAVE US.  [SHAME ]

People often tell us to work on our weaknesses and yea, it's pretty much the sensible thing to tell anyone as it makes us feel morally good even when some of these weaknesses never really leave us. 

MUSE ON THIS: I'd rather you work on your strength. That's one good thing about you. That's your advantage over others. Your strength is that thing you do that blesses others near and far. While it's sensible to work on our weaknesses, it makes more sense to own our area of strength. You know why? Your perceived weaknesses, as long as they do not harm anyone, are things you can never change about you. Talking too loud, eating too loud, snoring too loud [ yep, I do that when I'm tired out ] So, while you make new year resolutions, spend your precious little time to work on your strength and people will start ignoring those weaknesses that have hemmed you in for so long. Do you look forward to 2013 yet?


#6 YEA, YOU KNOW THE STORIES OF PEOPLE'S LIVES BUT YOU DON'T REALLY KNOW THEIR STORIES. SO LISTEN.

Oftentimes, we meet someone coming through some moments of their life and we are quick to let them know how we have been there, done that. We even go as far as judging their actions based on the story of their life. Do we really have enough to make conclusions about others?

MUSE ON THIS: There's a major difference between someone's story and the story of their life. The story of my life is what you know about me; what you know of me. It's my life from your own point of view and that's fine. My story is my life as seen from my own point of view. It's my lesson. My elixir. What I took out of my moment in time as understood by me. And it's different from what you think you know about me. You can never take someone beyond their own story. It's a waste of time. Rather, you should help them find their story and allow them retell it as revealed to them. This is the basis of our Personal Branding workshop at Orange Academy. One of the things wrong with our world today is because we often impose our own stories on others. We say if it's good for the geese, it must be good for the gander. Listen very hard. There's a story that child is telling you. There's a story that lover of yours is trying so hard to tell you but you keep putting them within your own templates of life. Life is not a cookie cutter and our stories may often have resemblances but our elixirs are so very personal. Listen.


#7 EMBRACE FAILURE. IT'S BETTER THAN AIMING AT SUCCESS 

Owing to our many conflicting school reports while growing up, we have formed a wrong opinion about the word 'failure' that we do anything to live in its denial when it happens to us. We do not want to fail because we have a human need that seeks the approval of others even when we have to keep up appearances. 

MUSE ON THIS: It's honestly okay to fail. Forget the lies we have been told all those years. We only need to address the concept of failure from a better perspective. At Orange Academy, Failure is an art we teach our students to embrace. Here, as succinctly put by Michael Jordan, "I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed". What can you learn from your failed attempts in 2012? How can you use them to succeed in the coming year? In response to New York Times reporter's question to Thomas Edison on his many failed attempts with the final invention of electric bulb, here's what he had to say "I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work." You may also want to know that this same man once defined 'Genius as one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." So, while others wish you a very successful year ahead, may I wish you a year filled with many failed attempts that eventually lead to that one unique success that will change the world.


Send a mail to kennybrandmuse@gmail.com to attend our next Personal Branding Workshop near you or to simply connect with our Muse. 


Monday 26 November 2012

FIVE Lessons the Mouse taught me in Idea Management


I caught a mouse in my trap last night and it begged me for a minute or two before throwing it into the trash. It wanted to teach me a lesson of my life. Squeaking and rolling its eyes in the pains of the booby traps, the mouse needed to leave me with 5 major lessons that provoked me to write this piece. It's written to me. And if by chance you are reading this, you may learn one or two things but remember this was straight from the mouse to my own Muse. 


LESSON 1. Mice know how to invade new territories. INVADE

If you ever wonder how a mouse found its way into your well-locked apartment, think again. These creatures look for little cracks in the walls and together, they burrow it further bringing in their kin one at a time. You are not ready for business if you are not ready to drill a hole in the competition's. Steve Job's Apple drilled a hole in the IBM concept in order to launch the Lisa in 1984. Also in that same 1984, Richard Branson took on the almighty BA by bringing ‘Virginness’ into an industry plagued by dullness. Mice smell opportunities in distant places and launch an offensive. If you are coming into an industry with the same convention of offering, why would anyone do business with you? You gotta leave some hole in the walls so they can notice you and literarily smell a rat.  

LESSON 2. Mice know how to litter the place. They are very fertile. CREATE

There is almost no other way to build your personal branding without producing what we can see. And number matters here. How many articles have you written in your area of expertise? How many Blogs have you contributed to? How many papers have you submitted to the local institutions in your city? Every 4 week, a mouse is ready to produce new litters. You are laughing at the other lady whose work is almost everywhere online, right? Well, you need to laugh at yourself. Revolutionists write their thoughts down. They produce prototypes of their works. They keep doing it. You are as good as your last job four weeks ago.  Don’t tell us you have an idea of how to change an industy. Write it down. Post it online. That’s littering.

LESSON 3.  Mice can Infect your precious little ones. Be INFECTIOUS 

When a mouse pee on it, you better leave it. It's called the power of infectiousness. Don't do things for doing things sake. Leave them with an infectious messaging or style. To be infectious is to start something that can go places. Online, you call it viral. What's more viral than a mouse? Don't just update your Facebook page, leave it with a poison. Tweet with some infectious words and see the world at your doorstep. Learn the power of infectious messaging. Learn how to tell story that can be retold. Check your area of influence on your marketplace. Are you being infectious or you are just a sweet little something that leaves no bite. Pee on that industry and let people smell it from afar. Don't strive to litter for litter's sake. Make sure your works have a bite to it. The little Black dress by Coco Channel was a revolution that has never left womenfolk’s closets. Prior to 192O's, no one would touch a black dress except they are mourning. Coco tapped into the World War 1 fatalities and created a sexy dress women could wear to just about anywhere. That's being infectious. Smelling the opportunity and turning it into some magic. People still can't get over it as every woman worth the salt still keeps a little black dress. Infectious works create movements, cool cultures and counter cultures. They help us make sense of our world without providing an absolute answer to our many questions. They are deeply layered leaving us wanting for more. Above all, they are brutally simple like the LBD. 

LESSON 4. Mice can adapt to a new environment quite faster than fast, making them one of the animals you find anywhere on earth. ADAPT OR DIE

Like Darwin said. Only the creature that adapts in the circle of life truly survives. Things change all around us. Economies change. Consuming patterns change. Industries change. From diskette to CD, from CD to flash drives, from flash drives to clouds. Things are bound to change and you don't just stand there crying foul and blaming your stepmom for your misfortunes. There was a time we clutched our Encyclopedia in forms of books and CD-ROM. Today, the Wikipedia has changed all of that. What do you do? Change. Yea, you heard me. Change. Change your operational model. Change your office. Who needs that over-decorated reception when most of your prospects are online? Change. Change the way you see work hours for your staff. The cities are getting overpopulated. Transportations are barely enough for all. Do people have to come to work from 8 to 5pm when they can get most jobs done on their computers at home? Change. Adaptation is the no 5 rule of the mouse.

LESSON 5. Mice are the lab rats. Experiment. EXPERIMENT WITH FAILURE.

You know the popular saying about the lab rat? It's not a legend. Most laboratories of human science today have to thank the mice for allowing themselves to go through such gruesome exercises in the lab. Mice embrace experiment. So should you. You can't know if it will work if you don't experiment with it. History has it that Thomas Edison tried for a thousand times before he got the light bulb right. After many experiments with platinum and other filaments, Thomas Edison returned to Carbon filament to give the world a long lasting bulb.  

PS: I created a workbook out of this to teach the ‘how’ of each lesson. The workbook gives you detailed steps to take. These are techniques gleaned from over thousand best practices in Brand and Idea Management as taught at Orange Academy.  If you want the workbook or you want to attend our next Personal Branding workshop, send a mail to the Program Officer at Orange Academy via info@kennybrandmuse.com or info@cluborangeng.com.

Peace.